A common method for the production of a cylinder crankcase for internal combustion engines is to cast cylinder liners, which are composed of an especially resistant material and have suitable tribological characteristics, into the cylinder crankcase. These cylinder liners usually extend over the entire length of the cylinder bore.
DE 101 53 720 C2 shows a cylinder crankcase having a short cylinder liner, which extend substantially between the top and bottom dead centers of the piston travel, and a method for the production of such a cylinder crankcase. To produce the cylinder crankcase, use is made of a mold with sleeves, the short cylinder liners being pushed onto the sleeves before casting of the cylinder crankcase and secured by a projection firmly connected to the sleeve. The sleeve and the cylinder liner are positioned in the mold by slides. The cylinder liners themselves differ from the conventional cylinder liners in having a shorter axial extent. One disadvantage to this method is that the cylinder liner pushed on to the sleeve and secured by a projection of the sleeve can tilt during the movement performed by the slide. Since the cylinder liner is a rigid body, this can result in damage to the mold. In addition, the cylinder liner does not completely cover the sleeve, so that during the casting process contact occurs between the hot casting material and the sleeve. This leads to increased wearing of the sleeve.
DE 102 38 873 B4 shows a cylinder liner for a cylinder crankcase which has contouring on its crankshaft-side end face. During the casting process for the production of a cylinder crankcase the cylinder liner is secured on a sleeve and is supported with the contoured end face against the sleeve. The closed, non-contoured part of the area of the cylinder liner extends between the cylinder head-side end of the cylinder liner and the bottom dead center of the bottom piston ring during the piston travel. On its contoured end face, the cylinder liner positioned on a sleeve is supported by the sleeve only on the very highest elevations of the contour. This makes it more difficult to achieve a correct alignment of the cylinder liner axis parallel to the running direction of the cylinder and is conducive to tipping of the cylinder liner. The sleeve is moreover unprotected against contact with the casting material on those areas which, due to the contouring, are not covered by the cylinder liner.
JP 06 185 401 A shows a cylinder crankcase having a short liner. The axial extent of the liner is in this case dimensioned so that it extends only over the length of the piston rings, when the piston is situated at the top dead center of its travel.
DE 101 53 721 B4 shows a casting tool for the production of a cylinder crankcase, a cylinder liner being cast into the cylinder crankcase. The cylinder liner does not extend over the entire length of the cylinder bore, but during the production process is separated by means of a spacer ring at its cylinder head-side end from an upper wall of the mold. In the cylinder crankcase thus produced, the cylinder liner is anchored and secured by the casting material at its cylinder head-side end. The disadvantages to this are that the spacer ring has to be positioned with great precision, in order to adhere to predefined tolerances, and the fact that the spacer ring has to be removed again in a subsequent operation.
EP 0 871 791 B1 describes a method for the production of thin-walled tubes from a spray-compacted AlSi alloy, which is also particularly suited to the production of cylinder liners, since the manufactured tubes have the required characteristics for cylinder liners in terms of wear resistance, heat resistance and the reduction of pollutant emissions.
EP 0 858 517 B1 describes a method for the production of liners from a hypereutectic AlSi alloy through spray-compacting.
EP 0 848 760 B1 describes another method for the production of cylinder liners from a spray-compacted, hypereutectic AlSi alloy.
DE 102 25 657 B4 describes a mold assembly for the production of cast aluminum engine blocks, which comprise a plurality of cylinder liners. The mold assembly comprises a plurality of mold cores, a cylinder jacket core with multiple cylinder jackets, each having an outside diameter tapering over their axial extent, in particular being used for positioning the cylinder liners. The cylinder liners each have a tapering inside diameter, which is matched to the tapering outside diameter and which is a multiple of the wall thickness of the cylinder liners.